From the NYT:

Two days after graduating from high school last June, Jonathan Pope left his home in Miamisburg, Ohio, to join a traveling magazine sales crew, thinking he would get to “talk to people, party at night and see the country.”

Over the next six months, he and about 20 other crew members crossed 10 states, peddling subscriptions door to door, 10 to 14 hours a day, six days a week. Sleeping three to a room in cheap motels, lowest seller on the floor, they survived some days on less than $10 in food money while their earnings were kept “on the books” for later payment.

By then, Mr. Pope said, he had seen several friends severely beaten by managers, he and several other crew members were regularly smoking methamphetamine with prostitutes living down the motel hallway, and there were warrants out for his arrest in five states for selling subscriptions without a permit.

“I knew I was either going to be dead, disappeared or I don’t know what,” Mr. Pope said.

From the BBC:

The upper house of the Afghan parliament has passed a controversial bill giving amnesty to people accused of war crimes over the past 30 years.

Both houses have now backed the bill. It has yet to be signed by President Hamid Karzai, who could veto it.

Many atrocities were committed under Soviet rule, as well as by mujahideen leaders who fought a civil war and finally by the Taleban.

Many victims have reacted angrily to the idea of an amnesty.

Some MPs in the lower house, which passed the bill last month, now say they did not understand its implications when they voted for it.

Today is deadline day for Iran to suspend the enrichment of uranium, as per a United Nations Security Council resolution.

Since that's probably not going to happen, the BBC's Paul Reynolds tries to analyze what will happen next.